Re: [ALSC-Forum] A query

[Vittorio Bertola]

On Fri, 17 Aug 2001 23:01:08 -0700, you wrote:

>> versus powerful corporate interests trying to wrest
>> total control of it in the name of profit.
>
>"Powerful corporate interests" are precisely the entities that paid for 
>the current Internet, and they paid for it precisely because they 
>wanted to make a profit.  Without those "powerful corporate interests" 
>the Internet as we know it would not exist.

I think that this issue might appear as a slightly off topic one, but it is
crucial because it affects the way ICANN and other Internet governance
bodies are constituted.

Now, even if single parts of the Internet are private and for-profit,
there's no doubt in my view that the Internet itself, as an instrument of
communication, socialization and commerce, should not be managed towards the
biggest possible commercial profit for any of those owning parts of it, but
towards the biggest possible advantage to the collectivity.

If you still doubt on this... also printed paper or television are a
collection of mainly corporate properties, but it is clear to everyone that
the media system as a whole has not to be left unregulated, and that it must
be regulated to maximize the interest of the public, even while letting
anyone do his business.

If you think at it, the society in itself is made by individuals each one
having his own interest, but nevertheless, taken all together, they form a
collectivity which will have different interests, and will not be managed on
a for profit basis. Even if each individual pushes for its own interest -
and is indeed able to grow and gain prosperity - the community itself is
governed towards different objectives and with different perspectives.
Commercial interests of single parties should never become more important of
the general public interest.

So the fact that you own a piece of the Internet does not give you any
special right to write its regulation - not more than, for example, the fact
that you own an airline gives you any special right in making laws related
to air transport.
-- 
.oOo.oOo.oOo.oOo vb.
Vittorio Bertola     <vb@vitaminic.net>    Ph. +39 011 23381220
Vitaminic [The Music Evolution] - Vice President for Technology
.it Naming Authority, Executive Committee Member
ICANN At Large Interim Coordinating Committee, Member